Over three thousand young people across the UK become Childnet Digital Leaders

Posted on 27 September 2017

Our Childnet Digital Leaders are trained to champion positive use of technology in their school in order to educate their peers.

Delivered through a gamified online learning community, our Digital Leaders across the UK complete training, collaborate, gain knowledge and develop skills to help them make a positive difference in their school community.

What is the Digital Leaders Programme?

The Digital Leaders take part in online training modules on subject such as the positive uses of technology, online risks, responding to concerns online and how to run an education session in their school.

After completing their online training the newly qualified team of Digital Leaders take the lead in raising awareness of online safety provision in their school, by doing activities such as carrying out assemblies for their peers and creating educational resources.

To make the Digital Leaders Programme fun and engaging there are also videos and interactive features like quizzes within each module. These online modules are accompanied by offline tasks that give the young people an opportunity to learn skills such as campaigning, researching and creating education resources.

In the last two years we have seen a total of 3747 young people becoming digital leaders, and have heard of the great impact they have had in education their peers.

What teachers think of the programme

92% of teacher think that their pupils are better equipped to use technology safely and responsibly after taking part in the digital Leaders Programme

One teacher said:

‘The children were able to put their own mark on the programme working to their strengths, each child seemed to find something within the scheme they could work with.’

Another teacher with pupils on the programme saw a wider impact of the Digital Leaders Programme:

‘Some of the children who applied to be Digital Leaders were very technically confident but lack confidence speaking out. There was a noticeable improvement in their public speaking ability and confidence which in turn increased their self-esteem.’

Students gain points for the activities they take part in on the platform, one teacher noted that their students enjoyed this competitive aspect.

‘The children were very empowered and enjoyed being a part of the process. They liked seeing where they scored on the leaderboard and seeing their badges.’